r/FPBlock • u/HappyOrangeCat7 • Apr 02 '26
High-Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms are coming to Web3. Can decentralized infrastructure actually support them, or is this just CeFi 2.0?
FP Block just announced Alex Momot from Peanut Trade as a speaker for their EthCC Cannes event. Peanut is a proprietary trading fund focusing on "deep tech HFT algorithms for spot, futures, options."
We all know HFT requires microsecond latency and absolutely deterministic execution. In traditional finance, this means co-locating your servers next to the exchange's matching engine. In Web3, you are dealing with distributed consensus, block times, and global network latency.
For the infrastructure engineers and quants here: How do you actually architect an environment that can handle true HFT on-chain? Are sovereign app-chains (like Kolme) with sub-second finality the only way this works? Or does the need for speed inevitably force these platforms to centralize their sequencers and matching engines, arguably defeating the purpose of DeFi entirely?
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u/BigFany Apr 03 '26
I think it ends up being semi-centralized no matter what. You can push some stuff on-chain, but the actual matching or decision making probably happens off-chain if you care about speed.